-You buy a limited amount of items: postage is sky-high
-You buy a lot of items to save on postage: you get raped by customs fees

It's a no win situation. I paid over $400 in customs fees in one week last year so I feel your pain. And you can't argue with them. They charged me a $60 tax for a $20 shirt that I purchased from the U.S.A. I told them they can keep the fucking shirt.

-You buy a limited amount of items: postage is sky-high
-You buy a lot of items to save on postage: you get raped by customs fees

It's a no win situation. I paid over $400 in customs fees in one week last year so I feel your pain. And you can't argue with them. They charged me a $60 tax for a $20 shirt that I purchased from the U.S.A. I told them they can keep the fucking shirt.

hmm how it is possible, isnt it suppoused to be just percent of average item price??!!

Fortunately in Australia custom charges don't kick in until you're over $1,000 AUD, which is why every Australian home is filled to the brim with cheap Chinese crap_________________Ignivomous merch: abaddon_963[at]hotmail.com
Whitehorse BandcampVoidchrist Bandcamp

-You buy a limited amount of items: postage is sky-high
-You buy a lot of items to save on postage: you get raped by customs fees

It's a no win situation. I paid over $400 in customs fees in one week last year so I feel your pain. And you can't argue with them. They charged me a $60 tax for a $20 shirt that I purchased from the U.S.A. I told them they can keep the fucking shirt.

hmm how it is possible, isnt it suppoused to be just percent of average item price??!!

Customs tax in Canada is 23% of the 'value' of the goods. I say 'value' because it doesn't really matter what the declared value is. The customs can charge you whatever the hell they want. I've had parcels marked at $30 and they decided that the goods are worth $200. When your parcel arrives (or you pick it up at the post office) and there's a custom fee to be paid you have to pay it to receive the parcel. You can't argue with the postal worker. After you pay the fee you can argue with the customs either over the phone or mail.

They really don't give a shit. They know that you already paid the fee anyway or you wouldn't be able to receive your parcel. I have never won with them. I must have been on their 'let's fuck this guy over' list because after I moved to another city it kind of stopped. I still get charged once in a while but nothing too major.

Also keep in mind that it's all in the 'click of a key' and mistakes are made. They want to type in $20.00 and by accident they type in $200.00 and your 23% tax duty tax goes through the roof. But like I said, at the end they don't give a damn. Plus here you get charged a $5.00 handling fee even if you don't end up paying the duty tax.

Not totally true. We do have customs and you can be charged customs tax. It's only happened to me once on a wholesale purchase from Peaceville but it can happen. Our parcels just aren't scrutinized as much._________________http://www.darkdescentrecords.com

One time when I was doing a whole bunch of trades I got dinged several times in a week (before I knew well enough to tell others what to write on trade packages) and for enough that it basically rendered any value of the trades worthless, and I called the 1-800 number for customs and a very nice lady told me that Canada Post hires students during the summer and at xmas to scrutinize packages and milk some extra cash for the local office. She also told me I was basically fucked, but at least I could appreciate her telling me it was basically a scam/cash cow....

One time when I was doing a whole bunch of trades I got dinged several times in a week (before I knew well enough to tell others what to write on trade packages) and for enough that it basically rendered any value of the trades worthless, and I called the 1-800 number for customs and a very nice lady told me that Canada Post hires students during the summer and at xmas to scrutinize packages and milk some extra cash for the local office. She also told me I was basically fucked, but at least I could appreciate her telling me it was basically a scam/cash cow....

And a government cash cow is my least favorite type of cow....

Canada Post has nothing to do with it though. Customs and CP are 2 different things even though both are run by the government. CP does nothing but deliver the mail. Customs inspect the parcel and determine whether or not to slap you with the 23% duty tax or sometimes they determine whether or not the material in the parcel is 'dangerous goods' or perhaps 'hateful material'. I've had a few parcels in my lifetime not delivered to me because they contained 'hate propaganda'. One of them was Impaled Nazarene debut LP.

From NWN, yes. But only from them. That's why i have never ordered from them. Insane shipping rates! Without a doubt the highest rates in the world. I order a lot from the US and no one charges as much as NWN.

What many labels don't understand is that, It's ME who pays for the shipping so i should be the one to decide how i want the items shipped and how well packed is it. 1-3 CDs without case can easily be sent in a small jiffy bag with a piece of cardboard and no other protection. It won't break and the shipping would be really low.

Thankfully, most people do it this way but some (NWN) insists to pack it in a way so the shipping charge is three times as much as it should be.

Hate propaganda...haha. For what comes to customs - Im still yet to experience that in Finland.

Good luck. Once you get a monkey on your back it will be hell every time. I've had many CDs scratched or broken, same with records. Magazines are the hardest to get from outside the country. All it takes is one sentence or even one word in a 4 or 400 page book/magazine and they claim that it is hate propaganda. And Canada has the most fucked up laws, even worse than Germany.